The ideas in The Certain Way have been developed through observation, which is the basic tool of science. We look and observe and ask questions. Then we form a hypothesis, test it and observe again. Refining all the time until we come up with an answer that holds and predicts certain outcomes.
Science is a recent invention. Before Aristotle wrote his book Physics in 350BCE, science was called philosophy – (Physics means Nature in Greek.)
In the 16th and 17th centuries, Galileo, Kepler, Newton and others called themselves Natural Philosophers – then in 1834, the term scientist was coined by William Whewell, and natural philosophy gradually gave way to modern scientific disciplines – physics, chemistry, biology, etc.
Throughout all these ages, wisdom has also come about through observation, hypothesis and testing. If it works keep it and let everyone know – or keep it as secret knowledge to gain power over others!
Things that work continue to be taught and get passed down, they don’t fade away.
Religions have books and tablets of stone that force an unchangeable hypothesis on their followers – often with the threat of death for non-believers. Religions are intractable and get stuck in power loops of hidden and secret knowledge, like businesses that hide their trade secrets.
Laws are only laws until they are broken, proved to be wrong or shown to be questionable.
But laws are useful while they last, they give us a structure to work with at a moment in time. New ideas and revised laws allow change and progress.
Laws carved in stone allow for power to some over the misery of others.
Some ideas have remained strong and have been passed down, successfully and repeatedly, through the millennia. They provide structures that allow us to live together and progress, adding to the world as co-creators with Nature. For instance:
The Golden Rule – do unto others as they would do unto you – is probably the simplest and most long lasting of all these philosophical ideas.
Working with the grain of Nature – going with the flow, is another.
Setting sail on the tide of opportunity.
Doing a good job and giving value.
The ten commandments are a pretty good basic law for getting along with one another and surviving in a pre-modern world.
And then, from somewhere, comes Gratitude.
Gratitude has most likely grown out of reciprocal behaviour – “thanks for helping out with my harvest, I’ll help you with yours.” That becomes, “thanks for the harvest because it’s a good one this year… after that awful famine last year.”
That becomes thanks to Nature for the harvest, and then thanks to a father-like god – a humanisation of Nature – an old guy in a flowing white beard, sitting on a cloud.
Gratitude proves to be an effective force, so it gets taught and passed down.
In the UK, where I was brought up, gratitude was taught as a habit of manners – “Say, please and thank you.” It was ingrained into us as ritual.
Gratitude can brim over as a felt emotion, when something wonderful happens.
Here in the UK, we were not taught about Gratitude as a constant force in a constant field – a force that binds thoughts and ideas and brings them into reality.
At school, we said grace before and after meals. “For what we are about to receive/have just received, may the Lord make us truly thankful.”
Waiting for the Lord to make us truly thankful, is like waiting outside the head teacher’s study. It feels like we’ve done something wrong. The Lord is going to MAKE us truly thankful whether we like it or not!
It is the first part of the grace that says: “For what we are about to receive,” that is the key.
Gratitude that comes before receiving is Deep Gratitude. It is the faith or certainty that the meal will come, that tomorrow will be a good day, the new car is being built, the architect is right now drawing up the plans of the house you will one day live in.
Deep gratitude works in a scientific way as a field, like a kind of magnetic glue that mixes up the elements that come together to realise imagined thoughts. Sustained gratitude allows the glue to set, and so to turn thought into reality.
So gratitude, with a small g, is about giving thanks for what you have, it keeps you feeling positive and happy with what you have already received.
Gratitude, with a capital G, is about receiving. It’s an emotional commitment to the future, to the realisation of thought. It is about doing things that allow the thought to move towards you as a realisation. It’s about creating ways to receive what you have imagined or asked for when it comes. Opening channels along which things may come to you.
In a way, it could be described as a sort of work ethic.
Gratitude can be seen in the wisdom that has been passed down – wisdom that has proved its worth through observation, wisdom that has found a place in the pantheon of knowledge, that you can choose to make a part of your daily life.
It’s your choice – “The Lord” is not going to make you choose.
This old wisdom lives in phrases like, “Ask and it shall be given. Seek and ye shall find. Knock and the door will be opened unto you.”
And if you find this whole process a bit unclear, a bit nebulous, then the ancients had an answer to that too, in statements such as, “God moves in mysterious ways, his wonders to perform.” (If the word, God, makes you nervous – just change it to Nature.)
Modern science confirms what ancient humans intuited:
- Practising gratitude rewires the brain for optimism, resilience, and trust.
- It reduces cortisol, boosts dopamine, and strengthens social bonds.
- It’s not just about being nice – it’s a creative force.
Like everything that changes your daily practice or rituals, it’s not easy to be Grateful all the time or even to remember to be Grateful all the time. It needs to become a habit and habits are created through repetition.
Deep Gratitude needs to be a lived thing, a daily being in the world – in Nature – grateful for the opportunity that has been given to us, to be co-creators with Nature.
It is the daily practicing of Gratitude as a force in the field of creativity that makes our thoughts become things. And it is the daily work of making ways to receive that brings things into our lives.